Books - Part 3

I did a two part book thing in 2013 so decided to just track my reading throughout the whole year for 2014 and as I will be having too much fun to be thinking about blog posts on 11th thought I'd post it now!!!

Started January 11th 2014

Raymond E Feist - Rides a Dread Legion (1st book Demonwar Saga)
Raymond E Feist - At the Gates of Darkness (2nd book Demonwar Saga - there are only two books to this saga!)
Raymond E Feist - Jimmy and the Crawler (4th book Riftwar Legacy)
Camilla Lackberg - The Ice Princess (detective novel) 

Nick Harkaway - The Gone Away World (post apocalyptic weirdness!)
Jane Harris - The Observations (Victorian era maid story) 
William Gibson & Bruce Sterling - The Difference Engine (steam punk like plotting)

Raymond E Feist - A Kingdom Besieged (1st book Chaoswar Saga) 
Raymond E Feist - A Crown Imperiled (2nd book Chaoswar Saga)
Raymond E Feist - Magicians End (3rd book Chaoswar Saga and last book of the 30 book series!!!)
Raymond E Feist & Stephen Abrams - Midkemia, The Chronicles of Pug (a companion book written like a diary)

David Hewson - The Killing (Danish police whodunnit)
Richard Ford - Wildlife (not entirely sure what this was meant to be!!)
Marcia Willett - Postcards from the Past (Cornwall based family tale)
Michael Ende - The Neverending Story (Fantasy) 
Kate Mosse - The Winter Ghosts (Ghost story)

Jodi Picoult - The Storyteller (Forgiveness and war)

Ken Bruen - Headstone (crime thriller)
Stephen Marley - Spirit Mirror (mystic goings on in ancient China - I used this book as the basis of my GCSE Open Study, having reread it I have no idea why!!)
Barack Obama - Dreams from my Father (His story of trying to find his identity)

David Gergen - Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership - Nixon to Clinton (His account of what makes a good leader from working in four Whitehouses)
George Stephanopoulos - All Too Human (His account of his time in the Clinton White House)
Jennifer Worth - Shadow of the Workhouse (Stories of life in the workhouse)

Jennifer Worth - Farewell to the East End (more tales of midwifery/district nursing in the East End)

Jennifer Worth - In the Midst of Life (Her thoughts/stories on care for the dying)
Ken Follett - Whiteout (Family secrets and potentially deadly thefts)
Donna Leon - Death at La Fenice (Detective novel set in Venice)
Coming Up Roses - Cath Kidston (The story so far!)

Trudi Canavan - The Magicians' Guild (Rogue magicians, first in a trilogy)

Trudi Canavan - The Novice (Second in the trilogy)

Trudi Canavan - The High Lord (Last in the trilogy)

Duncan Whitehead - The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club (All is not as it seems in the sleepy Gordonston suburb!)

Trudi Canavan - The Magician's Apprentice (prequel to the above trilogy)
Donna Leon - Death in a Strange Country (more murder in Venice)
EL James - Fifty Shades of Grey (thought I'd see what all the fuss was about!)
EL James - Fifty Shades Darker
EL James - Fifty Shades Freed

Donna Leon - Friends in High Places (more murder in Venice)
Donna Leon - Willful Behaviour (even more detecting in Venice)
PC David Copperfield - Wasting Police Time (stories from a PC) 
Denise Welch - Pulling Myself Together (autobiography)
Guppies for Tea - Marika Cobbold (getting old is no fun!)
Donna Leon - Blood From A Stone (more detecting in Venice)
Donna Leon - Through A Glass Darkly (Venice again)
Penelope Lively - Moon Tiger (One womans 'History of the World' as it pertains to her!) 
Penelope Lively - Heat Wave (Perceptive tale of a summer in the country)
Michael Palin - Around the World in 80 Days (The book of the TV series)
Michael Palin - Pole to Pole (The book of the TV series)
Michael Palin - Full Circle (The book of the TV series)
Donna Leon - Suffer the Little Children (more crime in Venice)
Donna Leon - The Girl of his Dreams (and some more)
Marcia Willett - Starting Over (Life and love in the West Country)
Donna Leon - A Question of Belief (some more crime in Venice)
David Gemmell - Wolf in Shadow (Book one - post apocalyptic messing with the space time continuum!!)
David Gemmell - The Last Guardian (Book two)
David Gemmell - Bloodstone (Book three)
Sarah Rayner - One Moment, One Morning (how one moment can change lives)
William Horwood - Skallagrigg (currently reading)

So I'm on my 58th book in a year - eek, that's more than one a week!!!

I have also decided that it's OK not to finish a book. I had this thing with myself that if I started a book a had to finish it even if I didn't really enjoy it. Life's too short for that!!!

Selling property...

...is absolute hell!!! At least that has been my experience and it's not one I intend to repeat for a very long time (if ever).

I admit that my sale was made harder by the fact it was a part rent / part buy property which meant that the landlord had to be involved in the sale as well - just what is needed, another layer of bureaucracy!!

The estate agents and solicitors were both appalling (Ward & Partners and Quality Solicitors Martin Tolhurst if you want to avoid them!). In general I think the solicitor only actually did anything if I was nagging her. To be fair to the housing association the girls I dealt with in the resale department were lovely but it appears that no-one in the organisation talks to each other so I was getting crap from one department when another department knew the answer etc etc.

This was the third offer I had had on the flat and so I was understandably nervous of it all going tits up, hence my keeping very quiet about it! It took six and a half months from offer to completion and 28 months from first going on the market. And to think at the beginning I was thinking I might have to move in with M for a couple of months!!

Anyway, once we finally exchanged contracts it was all systems go with getting my stuff shifted etc. There was a window of opportunity for the boss to drive up but as the sale dragged on that soon passed. As you know I don't drive so I got a couple of quotes from removal companies which ranged from £600 to £1000 - yeah, I gasped too! This is when I was very glad of Facebook as up popped Mr Removal on one of the Exeter sites. I got in touch and was quoted a much more affordable price that would include them packing up what was left to be done (I'd packed up quite a bit on a visit home in March).  They were fab, doing the whole thing in a day, having no issue with me not being at the Kent end, and just being generally nice chaps!!

I had purchased a double hi-sleeper so that I would gain the floor space taken up by a bed and I just had to smile sweetly at my landlords to move the current bed out so that I could get the new bed put up before all my stuff arrived. That would also involve sleeping on the floor for a bit as the landlords bed was a king and the hi-sleeper a double and my mattress was still in Kent!!  

The above was bed for a week - a camping roll mat and my doubled over duvet!
All set to have a friend come over to help put it up when he went and busted his shoulder. Some may say madly I decided to put the bed together on my own!!

And there you have it - bed put together single handed, all the stuff moved out that I wasn't going to use and everything else in a pile in the corner. I kept the chest of drawers and bookcase, and obviously the built in wardrobe. The cardboard boxes held what had been taken out of the drawers under the bed, bedside table etc.

After the removal men had been it looked like this...

At this point in the proceedings there was a book case and two wall mountable display cabinets in the hall, another bookcase and desk in the landlords study, plus some of the kitchen and bathroom boxes in their relevant rooms as well!! I managed to get the stuff off my bed that night so I could have a proper nights sleep but that was about it!

Ten days later the two bookcases and desk are in my room. The display units are still in the hall as they will be heading to storage. The boxes that were in the kitchen have been unpacked and almost all of their contents found homes. There must be at least one other kitchen box somewhere under the bed though as there are definitely some things missing - like my toaster!

I have a walkway from the bedroom door to the window and I can get at the bed and a comfy chair. I took two bags of stuff to the charity shop this morning and have already got some more stuff to go. 

The 50+ scrapbooks are going to be gone through. I will photograph things that I would like to remember and I will give myself a set amount of space that I can fill with physical items.  I'm thinking one of these bus suitcases from Cath Kidston!!

There will be stuff going to storage but this will be space that I'm not paying for and I will be VERY strict with myself about what I really want to keep that I just don't have room for here.

I'm getting there albeit slowly.

I love Exeter, my landlords are fab and on a good day I love both my jobs (although they have their moments like any others!!).

So I start my 38th year on the planet with a negative bank balance, surrounded by boxes, but feeling like a huge weight has been lifted. Smiles all round!

New Toy

I am a member of the Morphy Richards trial panel (I'm not getting anything for doing this before you ask!!)

Every so often I'll get an email asking for opinions on a new appliance they are designing. The questions will often start with a few different pictures and cover such things as size, price, looks, what it does etc. 

On some occasions you'll be asked if you'd be willing to test an appliance at home and if you agree you may be chosen to do so. 

Well, a while back, a survey came round about a new slow cooker and as always I said yes to testing and one arrived on Monday!

Here it is in all it's glory being used for the first time. 

But what is so special about this one I hear you cry? - well I hope I do because I intend to tell you!

As well as being a funky red, having a digital timer and keep warm function, this ones secret is in the crockpot itself. Rather than a heavy ceramic pot this one is metal. That makes it an awful lot lighter but the main advantage is that you can use it straight on the hob (except induction). Slow cooking doesn't brown meat and many recipes therefore suggest you fry up meat and some veggies to start them off which means an extra dirty pan. (I'm not too bothered about browning my meat but there are many people that find it odd!) So with this one you can put the crock pot straight on the hob, brown your sausages, mince, chicken etc, add your other ingredients then put it directly into the slow cooker, set the timer and off you go. As an added bonus when the timer finishes it automatically goes into keep warm mode. 

So tonight's dinner is cooking (Caribbean chicken) with minimal washing up to worry about!

Let's hope it tastes as good as it smells!

Simply Being Mum has a habit of naming her slow cookers and I've decided I'd name this one Mokey!! Wonder if any of you can work out why (it's a bit convoluted!!)

Oh and at the end of the trial period you get to keep whatever it was you were testing!!